CHICKENPOX IN ASHEVILLE

Part 2

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November 20, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

THE WORD SPREADS   

The Asheville Waldorf School is getting a lot of free pubilicrty these days. Unfortunately, this publicity is overwhelmingly bad. 

Here are news reports published in the capital cities of the US and the UK. 

From The Washington Post [Washington DC, USA]: 

Anti-vaccination stronghold in N.C. 

hit with state’s worst 

chickenpox outbreak in 2 decades

By Isaac Stanley-Becker

Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines. 

Cases of chickenpox have been multiplying at the Asheville Waldorf School, which serves children from nursery school to sixth grade in Asheville, N.C. [i.e., North Carolina] About a dozen infections grew to 28 at the beginning of the month. By Friday, there were 36, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

The outbreak ranks as the state’s worst since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than 20 years ago. Since then, the two-dose course has succeeded in limiting the highly contagious disease that once affected 90 percent of Americans — a public health breakthrough. 

The school is a symbol of the small but strong movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old [in the USA] who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Like the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015, the flare-up demonstrates the real-life consequences of a shadowy debate fueled by junk science and fomented by the same sort of Twitter bots and trolls that spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election. And it shows how a seemingly fringe view can gain currency in a place like Asheville, a funky, year-round resort town nestled between the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.… 

But not all parents seemed to grasp the gravity of the outbreak. Nor does everyone see the rationale behind vaccines, which some believe — contrary to scientific evidence — cause more severe health issues than they’re meant to cure. The claim of an autism risk, though it has been debunked, has remained a rallying cry of the anti-vaccine movement…. 

The virus used to crop up in about 4 million cases annually in the United States, causing more than 10,000 hospitalizations and between 100 and 150 deaths. Children were especially susceptible, as schools seemed to incubate the blisterlike rash, which appears first on the stomach, back and face and can extend over the entire surface of the body, creating as many as 500 itchy blisters…. 

[11/20/2018   https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/19/anti-vaccination-stronghold-nc-hit-with-states-worst-chickenpox-outbreak-decades/?utm_term=.25f7035fdaf3   This article originally appeared on November 19.]

From the British Broadcasting Corporation - the BBC [London, UK]:

Anti-vaccine community behind 

North Carolina chickenpox outbreak 

A North Carolina school with a large anti-vaccine community is at the heart of the state's largest chickenpox outbreak in decades, officials say. 

On Friday 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School were diagnosed with the disease, the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper reported. 

The school has one of the state's highest rates of religious exemption, allowing students to skip vaccination. 

US health officials say vaccinating is far safer than getting chickenpox…. 

The primary school did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC… 

Buncombe County, home to the city of Asheville, with a population of over 250,000, has the highest rate of religious-based immunisation exemptions in the state. 

Local health officials are closely monitoring the situation, according to the county's health department. 

"We want to be clear: vaccination is the best protection from chickenpox," County Medical Director Dr Jennifer Mullendore said in a statement.... 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends vaccinating children between one and 12 years of age. Though serious cases are uncommon, the CDC says chickenpox spreads easily and can be deadly…. 

[11/20/2018   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46267038    The BBC first posted this story on November 19.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

To understand the Waldorf approach to childhood illnesses such as chickenpox, we should dip into Waldorf/Anthroposophical writings. Here, for example, is an excerpt from the Waldorf Online Library, downloaded today (November 20, 2018). To aid the reader, I have  added a few explanatory footnotes.

The fundamental Anthroposophical view of childhood illnesses is that these diseases are beneficial and, generally, should not be prevented or artificially cured. We must, however, be sensitive and humble as we attend to the true needs of each child.

This view is applied, in particular, to Waldorf schooling:

We must cultivate in the child the joy of learning. When lessons become more personal, more individual, then we enter the realm of the childhood illnesses — measles, mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox. We must give time for illness and the joy of recovery. [1]

Change means sacrifice. Fever in the small child is a sacrificial fire — it burns itself in order to move forward. [2] The adult world has become frightened of fever. We tend to judge illness instead of listening to it. It might be necessary for the child to produce illness in order to bring about change. [3] The child may be fine, but his environment awful. Illness in small children may have to do with us. Who needs to change me or the child? [4]

There are two dangers:

   1. Medical technology. Ahriman slides in and takes away illness. [5]

   2. Arrogance under the excuse that illness is necessary. Lucifer takes hold in a different way.... [6]

— Anthroposophical physician Jenny Josephson, "Laying the Physical Foundation of the Consciousness Soul" [http://www.waldorflibrary.org/journals/15-gateways/281-spring-1996-issue-30-laying-the-physical-foundation-of-the-consciousness-soul]

The Waldorf approach to many things, including childhood illnesses, is heavily influenced by Rudolf Steiner's teachings about demons or "evil" gods, especially Ahriman and Lucifer. If you do not share Waldorf beliefs about such demonic beings, you probably will not ultimately agree with the way Waldorf schools deal with childhood illnesses.

[For more on these matters, see, e.g., "Steiner's Quackery", "Ahriman", "Lucifer", and "Evil". For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18.]

Coverage of the Asheville Waldorf outbreak has spread to other news media. See, e.g., reports on CNN and WLOS, and at Precision Vaccination.

Waldorf Watch Footnotes:

[1] I.e., schooling should take a child's illnesses into account. In the Waldorf/Anthroposophical view, illness is a blessing — it aids in the child's spiritual or karmic development. See, e.g., a book by Waldorf physician and teacher L. F. C. Mees: BLESSED BY ILLNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1983). Recovering from an illness is a joy, but undergoing a needed, spiritually-beneficial illness should also be a joy. Both sorts of joy redound to the joy of Waldorf education.

[2] I.e., the fever accompanying a childhood illness is particularly beneficial. It helps burn away impediments to the child's advancement.

[3] I.e., a child may become ill in order to cause needed, beneficial changes.

[4] I.e., the cause of a child's illness may lie in the environment or in the actions of the adults in the child's life. The environment or the adults may need to change, whereas the child — and its illness — should be allowed to develop as they ought.

[5] I.e., medical technology — like all modern technology — is potentially baleful. It functions under the sway of the arch-demon Ahriman, who beguiles us with the false allure of materialism. When we use modern medical measures, we allow Ahriman to intrude and cure ("take away") a disease that really should be allowed to run its course.

[6] I.e., we may err in the opposite direction.  We may become arrogant in our professed spirituality, and thereby we may allow the arch-demon Lucifer — who beguiles us with false spirituality — to take hold. We may then fail to do our best for the sick child.

— R.R.

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November 22, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

FURTHER COVERAGE 

From the Asheville Citizen Times [North Carolina, USA]:

After chickenpox outbreak

at Asheville Waldorf,

county quarantine order

challenged in court

[by] Sam DeGrave

First came the rash, then the quarantine — and with it, a legal challenge.

The late October outbreak of chickenpox at Asheville Waldorf School prompted Buncombe County health officials in early November to call for the quarantine of 104 of school's 152 students. Nearly 75 percent hadn't been vaccinated for the virus….

Asheville attorney Lakota Denton said Tuesday the quarantine violated the civil liberties of the children — two of whom he represents….

The quarantine order the county provided to Asheville Waldorf School parents gave them a choice. They could have their children vaccinated, prove they're immune to the virus or keep them away from others.

Given [such a] choice, parents — even those who oppose vaccines — typically choose to immunize….

[But] that wasn't the case with this outbreak. The majority of parents presented with the county's order chose quarantine….

[T]he county said the quarantine was the "least restrictive means" to control the outbreak, which the North Carolina Department of Health and Human says is the worst the state has seen since the chickenpox vaccine became available in 1995….

[11/22/2018    https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/11/20/chickenpox-asheville-waldorf-school-quarantine-court-challenge-religious-freedom-civil-liberities/2069844002/    This article was originally published on November 20.]

From ABC News, WLOS [North Carolina, USA]:

Judge sides with

Buncombe health officials

in chicken pox case

A judge has ruled Buncombe County health officials [in western North Carolina] had the authority to keep unvaccinated children from returning to Asheville Waldorf School.

Earlier this month, county health officials issued a 21-day quarantine to all students who could not provide proof of immunity against chicken pox.

The health department, which has been monitoring an outbreak at the school since the end of October, said there have been 36 confirmed cases of chicken pox at the school.

Asheville Waldorf School is a private school with two campuses in West Asheville.

[11/22/2018    https://wlos.com/news/local/judge-sides-with-buncombe-health-officials-in-chicken-pox-case    This report originally aired on November 21.]

From Newshub [New Zealand]: 

Chickenpox outbreak at school

full of unvaccinated children

[by] Dan Satherley

Dozens of children have come down with chickenpox at a US school with one of the highest exemption rates in the state.

Thirty-six students at Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, North Carolina, have contracted the varicella virus responsible for the infectious and painful disease….

More than 70 percent the private school's children have an exemption to at least one standard vaccine, the chickenpox vaccine the most common, NPR [National Public Radio] reported.

The usual reason given is religious opposition, but some [people] just don't think vaccines are worth bothering with.

"What's the big deal with chickenpox? There is no big deal," local [resident] Amy Gordon told the Citizen-Times. "If I was a parent with a kid who wasn't vaccinated, I'd want to send my kid to the Waldorf School to get chickenpox."

Health officials say this is a bad idea. While often mild, chickenpox causes around 100 deaths a year in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control….

[11/22/2018    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/11/chickenpox-outbreak-at-school-full-of-unvaccinated-children.html]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18 and 20.

— R.R.

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November 23, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

STILL MORE COVERAGE 

Waldorf schools rarely make big news. They generally operate on the fringes of society, out of sight and out of mind. 

But sometimes this pattern is broken. Sometimes a Waldorf school flares into prominence. This has happened recently in the UK, where a pair of Waldorf schools (called Steiner schools there) have received blistering inspection reports from education authorities. One of those schools has been ordered to close, and the other seems to be teetering on the brink. [See "RSSKL" and "S. A. Exeter".] 

Now a Waldorf school in the USA is making big news of its own. The Asheville Waldorf School is currently the site of an entirely avoidable infectious disease mini-epidemic. Numerous students at the school have come down with chickenpox. Most or all of these children would have been spared this disease is they had been vaccinated against it, but — as is often the case at Waldorf schools — an anti-vaccine ethic prevails at the school. And now the school is reaping the results in terms of sickened students and worldwide negative publicity. 

Here, for instance, are excerpts from an article in The New York Times. The article doesn’t tell us much that we didn’t already know from the many articles we have reviewed from other news outlets. But the very fact that a Waldorf school is receiving attention in the pages of America’s leading newspaper is, in itself, noteworthy. 

Chickenpox Outbreak at School

Linked to Vaccine Exemptions

By Christina Caron

At least three dozen students have come down with chickenpox at a private school in North Carolina — nearly one-quarter of the student body — in what health officials call the largest outbreak in the state since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than two decades ago.

The students, who range in age from 4 to 11 years old, attend the Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, N.C. [North Carolina]….

The school has 152 children in nursery school through sixth grade, and one of the state’s highest rates of religious exemptions for vaccination.

“The size of this outbreak and the fact that this school continues to have a large number of unvaccinated students makes it very likely there will be continued spread of chickenpox within the school,” [local health director] Dr. [Jennifer] Mullendore said. “This also poses a risk of spread to the surrounding community”….

Schools in the county have had smaller chickenpox outbreaks in recent years of no more than five to 11 children, Dr. Mullendore said….

[Chickenpox] usually presents as a mild illness, but can sometimes cause complications like bacterial skin infections, bloodstream infections, pneumonia, infection of the brain — even death.…

[11/23/2018    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/health/chicken-pox-vaccine-asheville.html   The Times' article originally appeared on November 20.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, and 22.

— R.R.

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November 26, 2018

MAKING WALDORF A SYMBOL 

OF THE WRONG KIND 

Having inspired news articles all around the world, a Waldorf school in the USA is also inspiring editorials. The school has unintentionally made itself a symbol of the worst sort. The school shows us precisely how not to deal with childhood illnesses.

From The Journal Times [Wisconsin, USA]:

A school's chickenpox epidemic 

highlights importance of vaccinating kids

Regular readers of [this column] know that we have frequently editorialized about the importance of vaccinating your children, that it’s dangerous for parents sending their children to any school, public or private, to presume that they know more about vaccinations than a pediatrician.

Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, N.C. [i.e., North Carolina], is the latest locale to prompt us to make this argument again.

Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines.…

The school is a symbol of a movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old [in the USA] who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…

Chickenpox is serious, warns the CDC, “even life-threatening, especially in babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems”….

The outbreak [at Asheville Waldorf] prompted Buncombe County health officials in early November to call for the quarantine of 104 of school’s 152 students ... Nearly 75 percent hadn’t been vaccinated for the virus.…

Asheville attorney Lakota Denton said Tuesday the quarantine violated the civil liberties of the children — two of whom he represents.

Well, Mr. Denton, do you know what else could violate the civil liberties of those children? Death from a disease preventable by vaccination.

When it comes to vaccinations, don’t take advice from anyone who isn’t a pediatrician.

Vaccinate your children. Consider it an act of compassion for the many children who need community immunity [i.e., group or "herd" immunity] because their immune systems are not working.

[11/26/2018    https://journaltimes.com/opinion/editorial/journal-times-editorial-a-school-s-chickenpox-epidemic-highlights-importance/article_5f00968b-029f-5875-a515-ffa63a84c7f2.html]

Waldorf Watch Response:

The outbreak of an infectious disease at a small school in the American South — an outbreak that has sickened nearly a quarter of the school's students — has received notice from reporters and editorial writers from far and wide. Wisconsin, the home of The Journal Times, is nearly a thousand miles from North Carolina, home of the Asheville Waldorf School.

Presumably no school anywhere, of any kind, wants to promote behavior that endangers the health and even the lives of its students. And surely no school anywhere wants to be known worldwide as an institution that has done precisely this.

But this is what the Asheville Waldorf School has done. And, to the extent that Asheville Waldorf is representative of Waldorf schools generally, the infamy the school has attained reflects on the entire Waldorf movement — throughout the USA and around the world.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School — including items from as far away as Britain and New Zealand — see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, 22, and 23.

The statement from the CDC (accurately quoted by The Journal Times) is a bit confusing. It seems to say that chickenpox is "especially" dangerous for just about everyone ("babies, adolescents, adults..."). The medical consensus is that chickenpox is usually mild, but the disease can sometimes cause serious complications, and in some instances it may be deadly. Those who are especially endangered include pregnant women, newborns, and individuals having weakened or compromised immune systems. So, for instance, the UK's National Health Service says that anyone who has chickenpox should stay away from "pregnant women, newborn babies and people with a weakened immune system, as it can be [especially] dangerous for them."

— R.R.

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November 28, 2018

DISHONOR, DISEASE, 

KARMA, AND WALDORF 

The Asheville Citizen-Times is a newspaper serving the city where a Waldorf school has become internationally notorious as the epicenter of a chickenpox mini-epidemic. Yesterday, the Citizen-Times ran an editorial bemoaning the damage done to the city's reputation:

Asheville's anti-vaccine problem 

earns city a new badge of dishonor

Yet again, Asheville has made international news for all the wrong reasons. This time, the dishonor comes courtesy of an alarming number of parents who have allowed junk science-fueled paranoia to put their children — and their community — at risk.

As of last week, 36 students at The Asheville Waldorf School had contracted chickenpox. The school has one of the highest rates of religious exemptions from vaccination in North Carolina. Those two facts are not unrelated.…

When parents withhold immunizations, it’s not just their children who are at risk. A large number of non-immunized children, as at Asheville …

Asheville Waldorf, which enrolls children from nursery age through sixth grade, has the dubious distinction of having North Carolina’s third highest rate of vaccination exemptions. Of the 28 kindergartners who enrolled in the 2017-18 school year, 19 had an exemption to at least one vaccination required by the state. No wonder the malady has spread so rapidly….

[11/27/2018    https://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/2018/11/27/asheville-anti-vaccine-problem-chickenpox-outbreak-waldorf-school-editorial-vaccination-nc/2079555002/]

The editorial board of the Citizen-Times understandably focuses on local issues and concerns, in this instance the reputation of the city of Asheville. Here at Waldorf Watch, we can take a somewhat broader view.

The recent events involving the Asheville Waldorf School are not unique or unprecedented. There have been similar mini-epidemics at other Waldorf and Steiner schools far and wide. Like the chickenpox outbreak at Asheville Waldorf, these have involved infectious diseases that could have been prevented if the students had been vaccinated. In other words, the outbreaks — and the consequent sufferings of the children — were unnecessary. Rational medical practices would have prevented them.

Here are excerpts from a report posted a few years back at the website Justthevax:

Pertussis Closes Waldorf-Based 

Private School in Virginia 

A whooping cough outbreak hitting more than half (23 of 45) their pupils has led to the closure of that small private school for a week. The local Health Care Director unambiguously stated that lack of vaccinations caused this outbreak and that the children who were affected were unvaccinated (7 adult contacts also got the disease).

This outbreak is demonstrating two things — disease outbreaks happen in "pockets" of unvaccinated children, and, those "pockets" are often found in Waldorf/Steiner oriented institutions … Indeed, the last whooping cough outbreak I personally saw was in the Steiner Kindi [i.e., a Steiner kindergarten] two streets down from where we lived in Germany. The daycare director interpreted the outbreak as "the children seeking disease [presumably to enact their karma]”.…

Similarly, quite impressive measles outbreaks…have started in Steiner schools and Kindergartens and were sometimes specifically centered around Anthroposophical doctors with [a] vaccine-critical outlook. Steiner himself deemed rashy diseases, like measles and Scarlet fever…important for the development of proper karma and the shedding of bad miasms….

[4/6/2011   http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2011/04/pertussis-closes-waldorf-based-private.html]

The following report from the website Vaxopedia is also informative:

Waldorf Schools and Vaccines

…[M]any of the kids that go to the 250 Waldorf schools in North America are not vaccinated, including schools with some of the highest vaccine exemption rates in the country, including:

• Waldorf School of Mendocino County (California) – 79.1% vaccine exemption rate

• Tuscon Waldorf Schools (Arizona) – 69.6% vaccine exemption rate

• Waldorf School of San Diego (California) – 63.6% vaccine exemption rate

• Orchard Valley Waldorf School (Vermont) – 59.4% MMR vaccine exemption rate

• Whidbey Island Waldorf School (Washington) – 54.9% vaccine exemption rate

• Austin Waldorf School (Texas) – 48% vaccine exemption rate

That shouldn’t be a surprise, as anthroposophical medicine “attempts to mix the theories and practices of real medicine with quack cures, physical and artistic therapies and biographical counseling” and “their anti-vaccination stance derives from a dangerous and ignorant belief in diseases being something you must go through to strengthen the soul in its present incarnation”….

[10/13/2016   https://vaxopedia.org/2016/10/13/waldorf-schools-and-vaccines/]

According to the CDC — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — "Pertussis (whooping cough) can cause serious and sometimes deadly complications in babies and young children." Of the babies hospitalized due to whooping cough, one out of 100 die of the disease, the CDC says. [See https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/complications.html.] Likewise, the CDC says "Measles can be a serious in all age groups. However, children younger than 5 years of age and adults older than 20 years of age are more likely to suffer from measles complications." One or two out of every 1000 children who contract measles will die of the disease, the CDC says. Also, "As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children." [See https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/complications.html.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, 22, 23, and 26.

— Compiled by R.R.

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November 29, 2018

RETURNING TO THE SUBJECT: 

CHICKENPOX 

1.  Chickenpox

Faithful readers here are surely tired of seeing reports about the chickenpox epidemic in an American Waldorf school. But additional reports keep appearing in the news media. We should, at a minimum, acknowledge their existence. They represent the most media attention directed at American Waldorf schools in many years. Unfortunately, it is attention of a kind no schools would want.

Here are two more reports:

From The Washington Post [Washington, D.C., USA]:

Why small groups of vaccine refusers 

can make large groups of people sick

Outbreaks happen more easily 

in clusters of immunization skeptics.

By Saad B. Omer

Infectious diseases such as chickenpox and measles — once a rite of passage for American children — have been made uncommon because of vaccines. However, in recent years, an increasing number of parents are refusing vaccines [for their children], resulting in outbreaks....

The ongoing chickenpox outbreak at a Waldorf school in Asheville, N.C., is the most recent example of this problem … [A]lternative educational institutions such as Waldorf have much higher rates of vaccine refusal than public schools and other private schools. In a study of California schools, we found that Waldorf schools had vaccine refusal rates that were 19 times as high as those at public schools.

Alternative schools, specifically Waldorf schools, have been associated with outbreaks outside the United States as well….

[11/29/2018   https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/29/why-small-groups-vaccine-refusers-can-make-large-groups-people-sick/?utm_term=.6f242705f27a]

2. Chickenpox

From The News & Observer [North Carolina, USA]:

Asheville chickenpox outbreak revives debate 

about religious exemptions to vaccines

By Carli Brosseau

At least three dozen students at an Asheville private school have come down with the chickenpox in what state health officials are calling the worst outbreak of the disease since a vaccine was introduced in 1995.

The outbreak at Asheville Waldorf School has reignited controversy about the North Carolina law that allows parents to exempt their children from receiving mandatory vaccines based on their religious beliefs.…

Contrary to scientific evidence, some parents have come to believe that vaccines cause more serious health issues than they’re meant to cure. The source of much of their skepticism is a 1998 study that purported to show a link between vaccines and autism. The results had been falsified, the study was retracted and scores of studies since have shown no such link.…

In the 2017-18 school year, 1.2 percent of North Carolina kindergarteners were excused from receiving mandatory vaccines on religious grounds….

[The school with the highest exemption rate was] Asheville Waldorf School [with a rate of 67.9% among 28 kindergartners].…

[The school with the third-highest rate was] Emerson Waldorf School [with a rate of 28% among 25 kindergartners].…

[11/29/2018   https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article221988420.html    This report originally appeared on November 28.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, and 28.

— Compiled by R.R.

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November 30, 2018

RETURNING TO THE SUBJECT: 

CHICKENPOX AGAIN 

The flood of negative publicity triggered by the chickenpox mini-epidemic at an American Waldorf school continues.

From Biospace [an online forum for life sciences professionals]:

Anti-Vaccine Movement Causes 

First Deaths, Doctor Says

By Alex Keown

A movement against vaccines based on the belief that the medication causes more harm than good, has now led to its first deaths, according to reports.

In an interview with The Hill  Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert, noted that as flu season is upon the United States, there were more than 200 deaths of children associated with influenza. Of those deaths, 80 percent of the children were not vaccinated against the illness, said Hotez, who is dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

"So for the first time now we're seeing deaths because of this anti-vaccine movement," Hotez told The Hill….

Earlier this month an outbreak of chickenpox was reported in Asheville, N.C. [North Carolina]. According to reports, 36 students at one school all came down the virus. The school, The Asheville Waldorf School, has one of the highest rates for religious exemptions from vaccines, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times….

Hotez has been an outspoken critic of the anti-vaccination crowd who often suggest that vaccines are related to the growing rate of autism in the United States....

[11/30/2018    https://www.biospace.com/article/anti-vaccine-movement-causes-first-deaths-doctor-says/    The article in Biospace originally appeared on November 28.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

So far as we know, there have been no deaths among the Asheville Waldorf students who contracted chickenpox. Nor are any deaths likely. Chickenpox is usually a mild childhood illness.

Usually. But not always. Every year, thousands of chickenpox victims develop complications that lead to hospitalizations. And occasionally — tragically — a few chickenpox patients die. 

Prior to the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine, approximately 100 to 150 cases of chickenpox in the USA resulted in death each year. That’s 1,000-1,500 deaths every decade, on average, in the USA alone. Moreover, it is estimated that today, worldwide, more than 4,000+ chickenpox victims die each year. That's 40,000+ deaths every decade.

If your child were hospitalized due to chickenpox, I’m sure you would consider the situation serious. And if your child died due to chickenpox, then all the statistics showing that chickenpox is usually mild would have little meaning for you. You would know that chickenpox can be a serious disease. You would know that children should be vaccinated against chickenpox.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28 and 29.

— R.R.

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December 1, 2018

WITH APOLOGIES: 

MORE ON EPIDEMICS 

Repercussions from the chickenpox outbreak at a Waldorf school in North Carolina, USA, continue to ripple outward. The disease itself has apparently afflicted at least one additional student at the school, and it has spread to other individuals in the vicinity of the school. The outbreak has threatened the population at large, not just the unvaccinated students at the school.

Meanwhile, other schools and institutions — some located far from North Carolina — are taking the lessons of the outbreak to heart. Determined not to repeat the errors exposed so graphically at the Asheville Waldorf School, they are insisting that students be vaccinated against communicable diseases.

Here are two news articles touching on these matters.

From The Merced Sun-Star [California, USA]:

North Carolina chickenpox outbreak 

spreads outside school

The Associated Press

The largest outbreak of chickenpox in North Carolina since the vaccine was introduced in 1995 has spread outside the school where it was first reported.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that four people in the community have joined the 37 Asheville Waldorf School students who have contracted chickenpox since last month.

Buncombe County health department spokeswoman Stacey Wood says the most recent onset of rash was Monday. She wouldn't say whether the four cases outside the school were in parents or friends of sickened students.

More than 100 of the school's 152 students were unvaccinated and thus quarantined for three weeks. A judge struck down a portion of the quarantine order, ruling the county had the authority to keep children out of school but couldn't prevent them from leaving home.

[12/1/2018   https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/article222432480.html   This story originally appeared on November 30. Carried by the Associated Press, it presumably has been picked up by other newspapers and media outlets in the AP network.]

From World Religion News [California, USA]:

JEWISH OHIO SCHOOL WILL IS NO LONGER 

ALLOWING RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AS 

AN EXCUSE NOT TO VACCINATE

[By] Kelly Frazier

HEBREW ACADEMY OF CLEVELAND NOTIFIES PARENTS REGARDING CHANGE IN VACCINATION EXEMPTION

The Hebrew Academy of Cleveland [Ohio] sent a notice to parents informing them that religion is no longer a reason for exclusion from vaccinations. The decision from the school comes after reports of increased measles and chickenpox cases in New York County and North Carolina respectively.

Recently, Asheville Waldorf School in North Carolina experienced a chickenpox outbreak, as 36 children fell ill from varicella zoster virus. It was the first time since the last two decades that the state suffered such a large number of chickenpox cases. According to the school, out of 152 students, only 42 of them received the vaccination for the disease.

Similarly, the nation also has to deal with the spread of measles, which has affected 220 people all over the country. The increase in measles outbreaks continues to rise for the past two years. Ocean County, New Jersey, is also reporting an increase in this disease, as the number of cases reached 15.

Cleveland Clinic’s medical practitioner, Dr. Baruch Fertel, commented about the situation. He believes there are no credible scientific sources which indicate parents should stop vaccinating their children.…

[12/1/2018   https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/jewish-ohio-school-will-no-longer-allowing-religious-beliefs-excuse-not-vaccinate   This story originally appeared on November 29. Although originating in California, World Religion News presumably reaches readers far and wide.]

The chickenpox mini-epidemic at the Asheville Waldorf School has evidently attracted more media attention than any other Waldorf-centered story in recent memory. It is "big news" — and it is terrible publicity for the Waldorf movement.

Readers of Waldorf Watch News may understandably be growing weary of accounts relaying, or drawing lessons from, the situation at Asheville Waldorf. But the worldwide interest in that situation is, itself, newsworthy. We have little option, here, but to take note of the many articles that have arisen from the drama in and around Asheville Waldorf.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, and 30.

— R.R.

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December 16, 2018

◊ NEWS BRIEFS ◊

WALDORF AND INFECTION

The recent chickenpox outbreak at an American Waldorf school, and the general antipathy to vaccines found in the Waldorf movement, continue to generate bad publicity for Waldorf education. Here are two recent examples:

1.

A news item about a nonprofit healthcare organization that serves Virginia and northeastern North Carolina — from WHSV-3 TV, ABC News [Virginia, USA]:

Sentara requiring staff 

to get updated vaccines

On Thursday, Sentara Health announced that all current employees are now required to be up-to-date on vaccines.

Sentara officials stated this extra precaution will take place after last month's chickenpox outbreak in North Carolina, in which 37 Asheville Waldorf School students contracted the disease.

The list of required vaccines for staff include Measles, Mumps, chickenpox, Hepatitis B, Whooping Cough, and the flu.…

[12/16/2018    https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Sentara-requiring-staff-to-get-updated-vaccines-502803241.html    This story aired on December 14.]

2. 

Commentary inspired by a recent measles outbreak affecting Orthodox Jewish communities — from JewishPress.com [New York, USA]:

Who’s Responsible For 

The Measles Outbreak?

By Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter

…How does one explain the zeal of extreme anti-vax advocates? Why do they reject scientific evidence with such confidence, even religious fervor?

To answer this question, one must examine the source of anti-vaccination propaganda….

One movement in close physical proximity to Orthodox communities...is known as the “Waldorf School,” which is part of Anthroposophy, a New Age sub-movement….

The untold story behind this measles outbreak is that many of the most energetic and extreme anti-vaxxers are associated with non-Jewish, nay, anti-Jewish New Age movements. It is the advocates of such movements who are most responsible for the recklessness leading to the measles outbreak.…

[12/16/2018    http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/whos-responsible-for-the-measles-outbreak/2018/12/14/    This story originally appeared on December 14.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

Whether a healthcare organization needed to learn from the bad example set by a Waldorf school is, at best, surprising. And whether Waldorf education bears any responsibility for the recent measles outbreak in London is, at least, debatable.

But items such as these are revealing.

The Waldorf movement is giving itself an unfortunate reputation. People far and wide are starting to identify Waldorf with backwardness, recklessness, and bad medicine.

This reputation may be an accurate reflection of the thinking found within the Waldorf movement. But it is surely not a reputation Waldorf wants for itself.

— R.R.

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February 9, 2019

CHILDREN SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY — 

WALDORF SCHOOLS IMPLICATED 

Steiner schools in the United Kingdom are struggling to restore their reputations after enduring a series of extremely critical school inspections [1]. Meanwhile, Waldorf schools in the US confront a similar challenge as press reports link them more and more often to waves of infectious diseases sweeping across the land.

At present, a serious measles outbreak has erupted in the American northwest, particularly in the states of Washington and Oregon. Although the outbreak did not begin at a Waldorf school, news coverage has pointed to these schools at places where the health of children may be seriously imperiled.

From Willamette Week [Portland, Oregon]:

The Schools With the Lowest 

Measles Immunization Rates 

in Portland? Religious and 

Waldorf Schools [2]

By Anna Del Savio

The measles are back.

An outbreak that began in Clark County, Wash., continues to grow this week, with 51 confirmed cases at press deadline. (That number rose to 54 on Wednesday.) The majority of cases were in children under age 10 who had not received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.

The outbreak has been fueled by low vaccination rates...

Here are the schools with the lowest immunization rates in the county:

   …Cedarwood Waldorf School — 38% [unvaccinated]

   …Shining Star [Waldorf] School — 37% [unvaccinated]…. [3]

[https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2019/02/06/the-schools-with-the-lowest-measles-immunization-rates-in-portland-religious-and-waldorf-schools/    This article originally appeared on February 6.]

Some of the recent coverage refers to a chickenpox epidemic that originated in a Waldorf school in North Carolina. [4] Even in media that might otherwise be sympathethic to Waldorf as an alternative to traditional public schools, Waldorf is taking a beating.

From The Federalist [a conservative online magazine and podcast]:

Washington Measles Outbreak 

Shows Anti-Vaxxers Care About 

Their Liberty, But Not Yours

By Ian Haworth

Health officials in Washington state have declared a state of emergency as they struggle to contain a measles outbreak, with one new case diagnosed each day. Forty-eight new cases of measles have been found this year in Washington alone. In addition to this, measles cases have been reported in Hawaii, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, California, and Georgia…

In Washington, 41 of the 48 people who have come down with measles were not vaccinated…

Time and time again, we are seeing that reduced vaccination rates are a driving force behind vaccine-preventable outbreaks. Last year, the Asheville Waldorf School in North Carolina experienced a widespread chickenpox outbreak, because 110 of the 152 students had not received a a chickenpox vaccine….

[https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/05/washington-measles-outbreak-shows-anti-vaxxers-care-liberty-not/    This article originally appeared on February 5.]

Some of the commentary — even in countercultural publications that might ordinarily admire Waldorf education — has become pointedly critical of Waldorf schools.

From The Stranger [Seattle, Washington]:

Completely Preventable 

Measles Outbreak Is Up to 

50 Cases and Counting

By Katie Herzog

Just how foolish are your children's friend's parents? On Wednesday, the Seattle Times's Gene Balk…published a new tool that will tell you just that by tracking vaccination rates at area schools … You’ll find out exactly the percentage of parents in your kids' schools who take health advice from yoga teachers instead of pediatricians. And prepare yourself to be appalled: Washington, as Balk reports, has among the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in the U.S. …

Seattle schools area do much better [than the average in Washington], with the [exception of] local Waldorf Schools, which have 22.5 MMR exemption rate [5]. This is zero percent surprising if you've ever been to a Waldorf School, where things like imagination and creativity [6] are prioritized over reading, writing, and contemporary medicine [7]….

[https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/02/06/38674616/completely-preventable-measles-outbreak-is-up-to-50-cases-and-counting    This article originally appeared on February 6.]

The damage being done to the reputation of Waldorf education is far less important than the harm being endured by children who contract potentially serious diseases that could easily have been prevented. 

Still, this has become a trying period for the Waldorf movement.

Waldorf Watch Footnotes:

[1] See, e.g., "The Steiner Crisis".

[2] Followers of various faiths have theological reasons for opposing vaccination. Followers of the Waldorf belief system, Anthroposophy, are similarly motivated — Anthroposophy is, itself, a religion. [See "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?".]

[3] Cedarwoods Waldorf is fifth on the list; Shining Star is sixth.

[4] See "Asheville Waldorf School".

[5] I.e., students who have been exempted from receiving measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. 

[6] "Imagination and creativity" sound good, but they shouldn't come at the expense of a genuine education ("reading, writing"). At Waldorf schools, they often do. In the Waldorf belief system, imagination and creativity are linked to belief in clairvoyance and other fallacies. [See "Steiner's 'Science'" and "Clairvoyance".]

[7] Waldorf schools generally have low academic standards. [See "Academic Standards at Waldorf".] They tend to prefer ancient traditions — and ancient ignorance — to modern knowledge. [See "The Ancients".] The medicine practiced in and around the schools is often at odds with mainstream contemporary medicine. [See "Steiner's Quackery".]

— R.R.

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[R.R.]

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